Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has once again sparked public outcry in his country and among the Armenian diaspora. During a meeting with representatives of the diaspora in Switzerland, he touched on the topic of the “Armenian genocide,” making a statement that was loud in every sense of the word:
“We need to revisit the history of the ‘Armenian genocide.’ We must understand what happened and why it happened. And how we perceived it, with whose help. How did it happen that in 1939 there was no ‘genocide’ agenda, but by 1950, it had appeared on the agenda?”
The Prime Minister also pointed out some inconvenient truths, reminding everyone that this issue was artificially exacerbated during Soviet times because Turkey had become a NATO member.
In response, the once-popular “people’s prime minister” was once again accused of betrayal and labeled a “Turkish agent.” The Dashnaks (members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation) launched an attack, accusing him of “undermining and demeaning national values, catering to Turkish-Azerbaijani demands,” and even “insulting the memory of the victims of the ‘genocide.'”
The Union of Armenians of Russia expressed its outrage:
“The Prime Minister of Armenia, who is legally obligated to seek comprehensive recognition of the ‘Armenian genocide,’ has questioned a historically proven fact, recognized and condemned by dozens of countries and international organizations. He has called for a ‘reexamination of this issue’ to understand ‘what and why it happened’ and why, in his view, ‘there was no genocide agenda in 1939, but it appeared in 1950.’ In doing so, he is promoting ‘Turkish narratives.'”
Now, his critics have been joined by opposition MPs, showbiz stars, and various public figures. The prime minister is even facing threats of criminal prosecution—denial of the “Armenian genocide” is indeed considered a crime under Armenian law.
Interestingly—and frankly, somewhat amusingly—Pashinyan never denied anything. He merely urged people to look at the facts and answer some long-overdue questions. But…
It is clear that the Armenian opposition saw Pashinyan’s statement as yet another reason to accuse him of betrayal and decided to exploit the situation to the fullest. The issue is particularly sensitive for Armenian society. Decades of promoting the “genocide” narrative have created an entire industry around it, and any attempt to question it is met with a nervous reaction, as financial interests are at stake. The political elite of the Armenian diaspora and the Dashnaktsutyun party, which is closely tied to it, are especially concerned. Revenge for the “genocide” is their primary political objective.
There is another important aspect to this issue. In Armenia, where numerous institutions have been set up to “study the Armenian genocide,” there is little interest in genuine research into what actually happened in Anatolia during World War I. Instead, people are expected to blindly accept political narratives, where “evidence” is often reduced to statements like, “Just visit any Armenian home, and an elderly grandmother will tell you the story…”
Perhaps the real “moment of truth” came in 2015, when Turkey decided to open its archives—including military records from 1915—and invited scholars from around the world, including Armenia, to study them.
Logically, historians genuinely interested in uncovering the truth would have lined up at the doors of these archives, perhaps even bringing sleeping bags just in case.
But… The then-president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan—a war criminal and accomplice in the Khojaly massacre—prohibited Armenian scholars from working in the Turkish archives!
This was an unprecedented move. Banning a historian from working in archives is like forbidding a chemist or physicist from conducting experiments in a lab. Especially when it involves archives as rich as Turkey’s, which hold the vast majority of documents related to Armenian history.
The Armenian authorities closed the doors of the Turkish archives to their own scholars—likely because they understood perfectly well that they would not find any evidence of “genocide” there. But they might uncover a truthful account of what actually transpired in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire, along with all its implications.
In that case, Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to prevent Armenian scholars from accessing the Turkish archives is nothing short of a crime against the Armenian people. It effectively severed them from their own real history, replacing it with a vivid yet dangerous myth.
In 2018, Serzh Sargsyan was overthrown in Pashinyan’s “barbecue revolution.” But… the Armenian government still has not reversed the decision barring historians from accessing the Turkish archives.
The current hysteria over Pashinyan’s statement reveals that a significant part of the political establishment in both Armenia and the diaspora is determined to maintain this deceptive strategy—keeping scholars out of the archives, rejecting all offers for joint research into what really happened in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, and refusing to provide any solid evidence beyond the forged “Andonian letters.”
Instead, they continue to actively promote the myth, using it as a basis for territorial and financial claims against Turkey.
As a result, Armenia remains regionally isolated. It is the only former Soviet republic that has yet to eliminate the “white spots” in its history, even decades after the fall of the USSR. It continues to deliberately keep its people in the dark, feeding them propaganda and fostering eternal hostility toward its neighbor.
Fuad Akhundov
